Album Rating: 1.0

*changes list* lmao

This is like Fisher Price Fleet Foxes.

Honestly, very bland folk lyrically and musically; it's a gimmick.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

nah

Album Rating: 3.0

I'm a bit in between.

As quite an avid folk listener; I have to fully disagree with you Douglas. :/

It has Fleet Foxes vocal styling. A gimmicky banjo played fast for the sake of being 'folk', incoherent piano playing, neither deep nor impressive. A great lead vocalist however, not so well expressed with such poor lyrics.

I couldn't bring myself to give it more then a 2. I like that they are widening the appeal of folk music, in fact I love it but not like this, not like this. :/

sounds fine you gits

No need for insults Waior. :/

Album Rating: 2.5

yeah this is about as boring as Fleet Foxes. maybe a little worse, actually.

A gimmicky banjo played fast for the sake of being 'folk'

it's my love language though

also everybody is always wrong about fleet foxes

Fleet Foxes are a wonderful band. I love their style of folk and for me; Mumford & Sons stripping it of that particular merit both lyrically (in depth and story) and making the music itself more simplistic is too much to justify high grades based on it being more accessible.

Think about it; is this what we want from what is left of the genre. "ZOMG a banjo? That's soooo cool."

Or do we want artists like The Tallest Man on Earth, Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes to take the credit for writing lyrical poetry.

It's a question of judging the very sophistication of the folk genre itself. :/

It 'sounds' good, yeah but these are not timeless stories. They are pop-love songs injected with random banjo hoedowns to pass as folk.

Album Rating: 3.5

Steoandnoodlees is definitely not alone in his thoughts & I can see why people think that way.



It all gets back to the accessibility debate. I've always found it important (& a talent) that bands can make what is essentially a non-mainstream genre & make it accessible to a wider audience. That's what M&S are doing here & have done so very well. As long as they - or someone else - don't take it too far (say, auto-tuned folk... LOL), then it's fine for now.

I thought of it that way originally too. That I loved the fact that Mumford & Sons are making the genre appealing to everyone while maintaining certain subtle aspects of the genre.

However; that is not to say I am going to judge them based on this. As when you reflect back the damage the lyrical presentation both in structure and quality take and the actual ambiguity of the instrumentals themselves; make it, for me a very lackluster effort that even strings more towards pop-rock then folk itself.

Seriously, take out the banjo and you have very little of the initial genre.

But yes DaveyBoy, you're totally correct. What they are doing is cool, it's totally acceptable but I, when I rate something or give my opinions; I base them on the standards of the music as a whole and within the genre. And this simply doesn't compare to what ineffable music other artists are making.

But I really appreciate you not biting my head off for having a negative opinion on the record DaveyBoy.

Album Rating: 3.5

Well said.



I guess we both just hope that the good outweighs the bad. The good being person A hears this, likes it, looks into folk more & then discovers how many great folk artists out there that will never get played on radio, etc...

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

Or do we want artists like The Tallest Man on Earth, Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes to take the credit for writing lyrical poetry.





I love all those bands... and this one ZOMG

Album Rating: 1.0

wider audiences also listen to Black Eyed Peas so I have no faith in such an argument. People don't look into this type of music more because they heard "a song they liked on the radio by some band" most of them probably don't know who Mumford and Sons are and will download it off Limewire where someone mistakenly labels it as by Led Zeppelin like so many people I know who had House of the Rising Sun by in high school.

Album Rating: 2.0

every song on this sounds the same

Album Rating: 1.0

*every song on this sounds like the same song by another band.



fix'd

Album Rating: 2.0

could be both tbh

Album Rating: 3.0

this wore off really quickly

I'm still interested to see what they do with their sophomore release. I wonder if they will improve.